Poulenc: Les Animaux modeles; Sinfonietta

by Bramwell Tovey, BBC Concert Orchestra

Overview

It may be that this little release made best-seller lists in the autumn of 2022 because it was the last one conducted by Bramwell Tovey, who passed away before it was released. Or it could just be that the album is delightful. Everything comes together in this program of light, but in no way trivial music, which isn't much played outside of France. Hear the liveliness from the very start in the first movement of the Sinfonietta of 1948, with its perfect note of exuberance reawakening from years of gloom. The other large work is the ballet Les Animaux modeles, completed in 1942. This work is much less familiar than Saint-Saens' The Carnival of the Animals, but perhaps it shouldn't be; for pure pictorial fun, it is hard to beat the third movement, "La Cigale et la fourmi" ("The Grasshopper and the Ant"), and some of the other animals are given satirical human characteristics. Still more obscure are two excerpts Poulenc contributed to collaborative works in the 1920s, and for Poulenc buffs, the album will be worth having for these alone. The BBC Concert Orchestra is the perfect vehicle for this music, and Chandos engineers, working at the Watford Colosseum, achieve an ideal airy sound. Just a wonderful Poulenc release. ~ James Manheim

Product Details

Release Date:	11/04/2022
Label:	Chandos
UPC:	0095115526026
Rank:	11042

Tracks

1. Les animaux modèles, ballet, FP 111a
2. Pastourelle, ballet movement (for collab. work, L'éventail de Jeanne), FP 45a
3. Les mariés de la Tour Eiffel, ballet (collaborative work: nos. 3-4 only), FP 23
4. Sinfonietta, for chamber orchestra, FP 141

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Bramwell Tovey   Primary Artist,Conductor
BBC Concert Orchestra   Primary Artist,Orchestra

Technical Credits

Francis Poulenc   Liner Notes,Composer
Francis Marchal   Liner Note Translation
Henri Rousseau   Cover Art
Stephen Pettitt   Liner Note Translation
Brian Pidgeon   Recording Producer
Alexander James   Assistant Engineer,Editing,Photography
Finn S. Gundersen   Booklet Editor
Andreas Klatt   Liner Note Translation
Ralph Couzens   Engineer
Sue Shortridge   A&R
Cass Cassidy   Design,Typesetting
David Cooper   Photography
Nathaniel Anderson Frank   Leader
Nigel Simeone   Liner Notes